Smug git!
Juggling Balls is all in a day's work for working mothers and that is one of the reasons I have enjoyed being a SAHM so much - it reduces the amount of balls! But recently I have RANTED, and in the past debated, about my choice. Well now I am ready to go back to work. But I am concerned. I am a crap juggler. Seriously. I cannot do it despite being told at a teacher training day many years ago that anyone can learn. Not me. So if I can't keep 3 little multi-coloured balls in the air how on earth am I meant to juggle my children, my husband, me, the home, my career and all the other extras that life throws at us? I am a well planned, organised person - my teaching file always had colour coded sticky notes a la Monica Geller - but I am not always calm. If something upsets my plans I panic. When I get back to work the day will be meticulously planned out ahead down to the minute that breakfast needs to be finished by, teeth brushed and out of the door. My big freak out is over the fact that the OH will probably be away working for 2 days a week and all over the place for the other 3 days. He has said that things will change and he will do his best to help but ultimately I feel I will take on the bulk (99.9%?) of the responsibility for the children and definitely 100% of the worrying.
I know women do it, I have worked with women that do it but I am still worried about how I will do it. First though I need to get myself a job. Damn! I need to actually get a job! That means job application forms, visiting schools, schmoozing with the heads, sorting out references and if that is successful teaching a class of unknowns whilst being watched, doing a presentation - probably on some new initiative that has been introduced in the last 3 years that I know nothing about, and then the dreaded interview.
So, I don't need to worry about those balls quite yet. Now I'm worried about getting a job. I've only got SAHM to put on the application form to justify the last three years. Oh bugger!!
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You're an intelligent, creative and caring woman. Anyone who doesn't see this through your CV and interview isn't worth working for. You'll be an asset to any working environment.
ReplyDeleteGood luck. And rant away. :-)
SAHM doesn't require justification love... what it requires is a medal. Good luck. BM x
ReplyDeleteExpert juggling is illusory. Behind closed doors very few of us are managing it. The minority that are are probably intolerable to know. I seldom do the laundry, scrabble about an empty fridge to find proteins for my kids and am usually the only school mother to forget to send in the dinner money/reading book/requisite sheep costume. And my work deadlines are met in a last-minute flurry. But the kids, despite my inadequacies, look reasonably clean and tolerably fuelled and I haven't yet missed a deadline. Things, I've found, always fall into place. Improvisation is the key, and lower the bar you set yourself.
ReplyDeletei do it but don't ask me how i just let it all happen!
ReplyDeleteYay! So glad I'm not the only one who forgets to take the reading books etc back!...Totally agree with everything that's been said above: you are fab, it is a struggle but somehow it all does fall into place...and if we're not leaving the breakfast table by 8am i sometimes go into panic mode...
ReplyDeleteThey will be lucky to have you! I bet there are plenty of teachers who have been off for a few years so I'm sure that won't put them off you.
ReplyDeleteAfter having lots of arguements when I first went back to work after E, Hubs and I now have to have a weekly diary planning session where we agree which of us is doing nursery pick ups and drop offs each day the following week. We also have an agreement that if one of us has to be away or has a meeting that would mean we can't do the nursery run then we have to put it on the calendar and whoever writes it down first gets priority.
The whole thing means my kitchen is like the Whitehouse Situation Room, big board and all, but otherwise I'd be a gibbering wreck.
Oh yes that old "life/work balance" idea.
ReplyDeleteI'd say that as the super organised and self-motivated person that I'm sensing you are - "juggling" work and family will be a piece of cake.
Try looking at this a different way - You are about to embark upon a new and exciting stage in your life and your life is going to be fulfilling and rewarding.
Good luck with the job hunting!
xClaire